Pretty Paper

Last week my husband and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary. Although I am very happily married, I have to admit that it can be difficult to think of an inspiring gift that we haven't done before--that also stays within our budget. After being together 17 years, married for 14, and our two children, we are usually running out at the last minute for something easy.

I was proud of myself this year because I'd gotten the gifts early (books), figuring I'd spend the extra time on the packaging. Inspired by this hand painted wrapping paper from amazing artist Geninne, I made some fun wrapping paper of my own.

Using photo booth photos we took the year we were married, I scanned the strip, copied it into Photoshop and duplicated it until they fit across an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper. Luckily, the vertical strip fit three times across. I had to print out two sheets and tape them together to wrap one book, but the tiling effect worked perfectly with the photo booth format. What a fun way to revive an old memory!

I had initially made a pastel-colored card, but once I saw the black and white wrapping on the books and found a black ribbon in my spare ribbon box, I knew a bright red heart would be the perfect accent. Please note that I am not ordinarily so completely coordinated - with clothes, home decor and especially NOT gift wrapping - but it felt great to use items at hand to create such a complete package. A photo-inspired one at that!